The present invention relates to a device for the alignment of an aiming axis body, particularly a gun barrel, at a target position.
Generally speaking, the device for the alignment of an aiming axis body, particular a gun barrel, at a target position, is of the type comprising a base body which accommodates movable and immovable components of the device, and drive means for the alignment of the aiming axis body.
The classical field antiaircraft gun is provided with gunlaying means with two aiming coordinates and tracks a target position in that
(a.) with a rotation about a first axis (azimuth axis) the layed aiming axis (the gun barrel) is pivoted into the plane which is determined by the target position and the first axis;
(b.) with the second axis (elevation axis) the aiming axis within this plane is layed on the target position.
Now if the target position is located on the first axis, the alignment of the plane, in which the aiming axis should be pivoted about the second axis, is indeterminate. The alignment (azimuth) can be optional. The direction of this axis thus represents a singularity of the aiming coordinates of the gun.
However, when the target position moves by close to this first axis (region round about the azimuth axis), then for a small travel of this target position there results a large change of direction of the above-discussed plane and thus for the gun on the ground; in other words, a large rotation of the laying means (on the ground) must be carried out about the azimuth axis in order to follow a small movement above in the region round about the azimuth axis. According to the velocity of the target position, this "large" rotation involves a corresponding rotational velocity and rotational acceleration of the weight masses of the gun on the ground. The faster and the closer the target position moves past the singularity axis, the higher are the dynamic requirements for the laying means. The provision of the required power has consequences on the resources to be provided (costs) and on the attainable accuracy.
A device, with which an attempt is made to deal with this problem, is described by way of example in the European Published Patent Application No. 72,699. This device partially fulfills the above-mentioned conditions, in which departing from the construction of classical gun installations, the singularity axis is arranged slightly inclined to the zenith-axis on a rotatable support and thus no longer at a right angle to the plane of the gun mount, such that during an azimuth rotation of this support the singularity axis moves about the zenith-axis on the jacket of a cone. This type of wobble movement of the singularity axis relative to the plane of the gun mount does improve the target tracking close to the zenith-axis, but this inclination is not sufficient to carry out in each angular range an optimum alignment of the aiming axis at a target.
Furthermore, the there proposed construction of the gun involves a difficult realization of the further requirements, which must be imposed on a gun suited for modern warfare. By way of example, the auxiliary apparatus must be arranged beneath or beside the illustrated gun mount, which either requires an undesired (very high) constructional height of the gun installation or results in a blind region in the operative range, which in most cases is likewise undesired (an exception are marine guns, in which the gun can be so to speak "extended" in the direction below deck).
In order to carry out a successful combatting of fast, maneuverable, small targets such as, for instance, guided missiles, a gun of the future must be able to fulfill the following conditions:
(a.) the gun must not be hindered by a stationary singularity axis, it must therefore be able to repel attacks from all directions (also out of the zenith);
(b.) the gun should only have to perform as small as possible rotational speeds and rotational accelerations at a given velocity of the attacking target;
(c.) the gun should have as small as possible inertias (loads), which have to be co-rotated during gun laying.
Apart from these most important requirements, still other conditions should be fulfilled for the useful operational combat as well as with regard to mobility and/or transporting capability, such conditions having a direct influence on the external configuration. These are, by way of example, transport profiles, simple erection at the location of employment, good accessibility for operational supply and maintenance of the installation and further conditions of this kind.